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Phoenix Coldon, a junior at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, has been missing since Dec. 18, 2011. Phoenix was last seen in the driveway of the family's home at about 3 p.m.

The Coldon family lost their life savings and their home because of a cruel hoax that led to a false lead in the disappearance of their daughter.

Please take a moment and let Phoenix's family know you care. Please CLICK HERE and read about the case of missing Phoenix Coldon

MA - Jennifer Fay, 16, Brockton, 16 Nov 1989 *merged*

Just when I think that I have seen the most depraved things a human can do to another human, somebody posts a new story...........

Why is it that when a custodial parent fails to provide for a child it is called neglect and is a criminal matter. But when a non custodial parent fails to provide it is called failure to support and is a civil matter?

"Just when the caterpillar thought its world was over, it became a butterfly" ~ Michelle Knight

The Following User Says Thank You to mysteriew For This Useful Post:

its so sad.. back then they didnt do much for missing children or adults the answer was always they will come back. but they didnt. take janice pockett. missing at age 7 since 73 never any clues or anything and shes still missing. a little over 30 years since her disaperace. there were prolly to many people drinking maybe some got out of hand and some man was hitting on jennifer. and things got out of control he did something got scared and ran. do they know she def made it to the party? what if she didnt and met with foul play on the way?

update

ROCKLAND -- Private investigators and volunteers believe they are getting closer to finding out what happened to a 16-year-old Brockton girl who disappeared from her home without a trace 16 years ago.

The 15-member team, including highly trained dogs, visited an overgrown lot in West Bridgewater over the weekend, and one of the dogs went into full alert by wagging its tail and jumping up and down.

It is the strongest response investigators have seen from a dog during their search, said Phillip White, one of the private detectives volunteering for the Jennifer Fay Investigation Team.

"We have some strong intelligence; we have some good interviews," he said. "I think we are on a way to a successful conclusion to find out where Jennifer Fay really is."

The team plans to return to the site again this week to see if the dogs respond in a similar manner.

If they do, and the owner of the property grants permission, the volunteers will sift the earth searching for human remains, such as bone fragments.

The latest possibilities have been hard for Jennifer's mother, Dottie MacLean, who has always held out hope that her daughter was kidnapped or recruited into a cult, and would be found alive.

"Do I want them to find her? Yes," MacLean said. "Do I want them to find her remains? No. But that's probably where this is headed."

Jennifer was baby-sitting her 11-year-old sister, Yvette, and 4-year-old brother, James, on the night of Nov. 14, 1989. She asked a cousin to look after her siblings and set out for a party. She was never seen again.

"It's like she disappeared right off the face of the Earth," he mother said.

No one has been charged in connection with her disappearance.

Jennifer was not the type to run away, her mother said. In fact, just two months before her disappearance, she wrote her mother a note to apologize for returning home late.

"Unfortunately, Jennifer trusted everybody," MacLean said.

White and other members of his group are working closely with state and Brockton police.

Brockton Detective Michael Damiano, who has been working the case for about five years, said he is encouraged by the latest news.

"These dogs are obviously very well trained," he said. "It would be great if it's in fact true."

The volunteer team and police have a person of interest in the case, and believe they have a motive, White said, although he refused to reveal details.

The West Bridgewater site is in a neighborhood where the person of interest once worked, he said.

"We're optimistic," he said. "Are we 100 percent positive the remains are there? The answer is no."

The search for Jennifer has ended in dead ends before. Her mother flew to Texas this summer after receiving a tip, but did not find her daughter. Other searches around Brockton and Holbrook have turned up nothing.

ROCKLAND -- Private investigators and volunteers believe they are getting closer to finding out what happened to a 16-year-old Brockton girl who disappeared from her home without a trace 16 years ago.

The 15-member team, including highly trained dogs, visited an overgrown lot in West Bridgewater over the weekend, and one of the dogs went into full alert by wagging its tail and jumping up and down.

It is the strongest response investigators have seen from a dog during their search, said Phillip White, one of the private detectives volunteering for the Jennifer Fay Investigation Team.

"We have some strong intelligence; we have some good interviews," he said. "I think we are on a way to a successful conclusion to find out where Jennifer Fay really is."

The team plans to return to the site again this week to see if the dogs respond in a similar manner.

If they do, and the owner of the property grants permission, the volunteers will sift the earth searching for human remains, such as bone fragments.

The latest possibilities have been hard for Jennifer's mother, Dottie MacLean, who has always held out hope that her daughter was kidnapped or recruited into a cult, and would be found alive.

"Do I want them to find her? Yes," MacLean said. "Do I want them to find her remains? No. But that's probably where this is headed."

Jennifer was baby-sitting her 11-year-old sister, Yvette, and 4-year-old brother, James, on the night of Nov. 14, 1989. She asked a cousin to look after her siblings and set out for a party. She was never seen again.

"It's like she disappeared right off the face of the Earth," he mother said.

No one has been charged in connection with her disappearance.

Jennifer was not the type to run away, her mother said. In fact, just two months before her disappearance, she wrote her mother a note to apologize for returning home late.

"Unfortunately, Jennifer trusted everybody," MacLean said.

White and other members of his group are working closely with state and Brockton police.

Brockton Detective Michael Damiano, who has been working the case for about five years, said he is encouraged by the latest news.

"These dogs are obviously very well trained," he said. "It would be great if it's in fact true."

The volunteer team and police have a person of interest in the case, and believe they have a motive, White said, although he refused to reveal details.

The West Bridgewater site is in a neighborhood where the person of interest once worked, he said.

"We're optimistic," he said. "Are we 100 percent positive the remains are there? The answer is no."

The search for Jennifer has ended in dead ends before. Her mother flew to Texas this summer after receiving a tip, but did not find her daughter. Other searches around Brockton and Holbrook have turned up nothing.

Thanks for posting this information, it certainly sounds as though the police are on to something.

Do you have any idea who the "person of interest" might be? I wonder if this person is already in prison for something else, maybe he talked to a fellow inmate about it. Sometimes that is how these older cases get solved.

I truly hope for the sake of her family that this latest search turns up something. I cannot even begin to imagine the pain they have gone through all this time.

Search targets field in W. Bridgewater

For months, dogs trained to sniff out human remains have searched for Jennifer Fay's resting place. Finally, after working their way through fields and private basements across Southeastern Massachusetts, investigators are hopeful they may learn the fate of the teenager who disappeared more than 16 years ago.

On Saturday, a team of about 15 private investigators, dog handlers, and search volunteers visited an overgrown field off Manley Street in West Bridgewater.

The four dogs became interested in the site, and one went into full alert, wagging its tail and jumping up and down, the strongest reaction investigators had witnessed during their searches, said Phillip White, one of the private detectives volunteering for the Jennifer Fay Investigation Team.

The team plans to return to the site in the coming days to find out if the animals' reactions are the same, he said.

If the owner of the property agrees to let the team return for a more thorough search, the volunteers will sift the earth for human remains. If something turns up, a bone fragment, anything human, the site will become a crime scene, White said.http://www.boston.com/news/local/mas..._missing_girl/

Just when I think that I have seen the most depraved things a human can do to another human, somebody posts a new story...........

Why is it that when a custodial parent fails to provide for a child it is called neglect and is a criminal matter. But when a non custodial parent fails to provide it is called failure to support and is a civil matter?

"Just when the caterpillar thought its world was over, it became a butterfly" ~ Michelle Knight

Just when I think that I have seen the most depraved things a human can do to another human, somebody posts a new story...........

Why is it that when a custodial parent fails to provide for a child it is called neglect and is a criminal matter. But when a non custodial parent fails to provide it is called failure to support and is a civil matter?

"Just when the caterpillar thought its world was over, it became a butterfly" ~ Michelle Knight

As dogs prepare to search a mound of dirt in West Bridgewater in the upcoming weeks for remains of her daughter, Dorothy MacLean is afraid to hope.

Four search dogs are expected to return to a spot off Manley Street in West Bridgewater within three weeks to check again after the canines, trained to find bodies, "alerted" trainers that something may be there during an earlier search Nov. 19.

"We will see if the dogs react the same," said Philip White, part of a team of private investigators probing the disappearance. "We are cautiously optimistic. We have been let down before, so we are not getting our buns in a bunch here."

If the search dogs do indicate again that human remains are buried, specially-trained dogs from the state police will be brought for verification, White said.

"If the state police dogs also alert that there is something there, then we will turn over the scene to state police. Then it will become a crime scene," he said.

Just when I think that I have seen the most depraved things a human can do to another human, somebody posts a new story...........

Why is it that when a custodial parent fails to provide for a child it is called neglect and is a criminal matter. But when a non custodial parent fails to provide it is called failure to support and is a civil matter?

"Just when the caterpillar thought its world was over, it became a butterfly" ~ Michelle Knight

MA-Jennifer Lynn Fay (16) - 11/14/89 from Brockton, MA

Jennifer Lynn Fay

Photos:

Age Progression:

Vital Statistics at Time of DisappearanceMissing Since: November 14, 1989 from Brockton, Massachusetts Classification: Non-Family Abduction Date Of Birth: December 25, 1972 Age: 16 years old Height and Weight: 5'4, 90 - 100 pounds Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian female. Blonde hair, blue eyes. Fay has a scar above her left eyebrow. Her teeth are crowded in the front of her mouth. Fay's nickname is Jen.

Details of DisappearanceFay was supposed to be baby-sitting her siblings in their Brockton, Massachusetts home on November 14, 1989, but decided to go out with friends. She initially took her younger brother with her, but between 9:30 and 9:45 p.m. she returned to her home to get a sweater and asked her cousin to mind the children while she went to a party on Emerson Avenue. Fay's cousin came over at 10:00 p.m., and Fay then left her residence. She is said to have been in good spirits at the time. She never returned. Fay initially went to a female friend's house near her own home, but her friend was not at home and the girl's mother refused to let her inside. The mother says Fay smelled of liquor and appeared to be slightly drunk. Fay left the residence accompanied by an older teenaged male friend. They went to a local convenience store at the end of Fay's street, less than a minute's walk from her house. Fay went inside the store, but her friend didn't feel well and went home while she was inside. That was the last time anyone ever saw or heard from her. Fay was reported missing the next morning when she had not returned home from the party. The friend who last saw her is not considered a suspect in her disappearance. Authorities originally thought Fay had run away from home. She had run away before, but had never been gone very long and had always stayed in touch with her parents. Fay is described as a very social person who was reportedly happy with her life in 1989. Some of her friends were apparently involved with drugs and possibly other illegal activities, and many were not cooperative with police during the initial investigation. Investigators now believe Fay was abducted shortly after her disappearance, probably by someone she knew and trusted. In 2003, there was a tip that Fay was murdered and her body placed in the trunk of a car and dumped in a pond just outside of Brockton, minutes from her home. Authorities searched the pond but found no evidence. Fay's case remains unsolved and foul play is suspected.

Investigating Agency

If you have any information concerning this case, please contact: Brockton Police Department 508-941-0200

MA-Jennifer Fay - 16 yrs old - missing since 1989 - Brockton, MA

Police target pond in Avon in teen's '89 disappearance

Close to solving case, they say

Email|Print|Single Page| Text size –+ By Eric Moskowitz
Globe Staff / May 25, 2008
AVON - Acting on new information, a team of private investigators and other volunteers scoured the area around a secluded Avon pond yesterday, searching for some sign of Jennifer Fay, a teen from neighboring Brockton who disappeared in 1989.

Volunteers picked through the area in Avon. Police are "80 percent sure" they have identified the person and motive in the case.

LE is looking for her in or around the pond. Sounds like someone has come forward with information?? Just postulating: After all this time it would be fairly easy to say she died accidentally due to alcohol intoxication or a "fall" as a result of intoxication and that the person(s) involved panicked and disposed of her in or around the pond, not wanting to get in trouble for providing alcohol... Or how about some mysterious individual outside of her "circle" is responsible. More likely someone in her circle whom she rebuked.
I'll be interested in seeing what the final outcome is. I hope they can find her and bring her family some measure of peace.

By Maureen Boyle, Enterprise staff writer
Dorothy MacLean will spend Mother's Day surrounded by a son, a daughter and two grandchildren. But it will be the child who is absent who still haunts her.

Fourteen years after her eldest child, Jennifer Lynn Fay, disappeared near the family's Emerson Avenue apartment in Brockton, MacLean battles to keep the investigation active and braces for how it might end.

"In my heart, I always felt something happened to her," said MacLean, who now lives in Rockland. "I don't like to think that. I would rather have thought she ran away."

Police initially thought Jennifer, then 16, had run away when she did not return home Nov. 14, 1989, after partying with friends.

It is not what investigators believe today.

Brockton and state police detectives reopened the investigation 2 1/2 years ago, traveled to two states tracking leads and talked with acquaintances and friends who knew the teenager or may have been with her the night she disappeared.

Based on information gathered so far, investigators have some suspicions as to what happened to Jennifer 14 years ago.

Those suspicions, if true, will not lead to a happy ending.

Authorities are eyeing two different spots in the Brockton area where Fay's body may be. But the harsh winter, coupled by budget concerns and imprecise descriptions of the locations, have hindered an extensive search.

"It is frustrating for the family," said Brockton Detective Michael Damiano, one of the investigators. "They want to know what happened."

Dorothy MacLean said she tried to convince herself 14 years ago the police were right, that her daughter was a runaway who would return.

In her heart, she knew her daughter did not take off. She said she suspected the worst.

"It was out of character for her," MacLean said. "She would not leave and not call all these years."

Statistics show MacLean is right.

According to the National Runaway Switchboard, nearly 40 percent of all runaways return home within three days. Another 21.8 percent return home between four and seven days later. Only 5.4 percent wait six months before going home.

MacLean has spent the past 14 years getting her daughter's photograph on fliers, advertising supplements featuring missing children and Web sites.

The posters feature a photograph of Jennifer at age 16 and an age-progressed photo of what she could look like today.

Jennifer Lynn Fay would have turned 30 this past Christmas.

Yvette Churchill was 12 the day her sister disappeared. Jennifer was watching Yvette and brother, Jim, then 4, at the family's Brockton apartment and called a 17-year-old cousin to come over to take over baby-sitting duties.

"I remember her calling up my cousin to come over and baby-sit so she could go to a party down the street," Yvette said.

Jennifer was in a good mood that night as she left the apartment recalled Yvette, now 26 and the mother of two.

Yvette did not know it would be the last time she would see her sister.

For the first few years after Jennifer disappeared, her mother would buy birthday and Christmas presents for her, a sign of hope that she would return.

Then MacLean stopped.

"It didn't make any sense to anymore," she said.

On the bookcase shelf in MacLean's home sits a portrait of Jennifer, a yellow ribbon draped atop the frame and a tiny plastic statute of the Virgin Mary from the teen's First Communion to the side.

It is a reminder of Jennifer's absence and fuels the family's determination to learn what happened to her.

"Someone knows," Yvette said.

MacLean said she hopes someone will be able to provide police with the key piece of information so her daughter can be found.

"Even if I couldn't find who did it, just having some kind of closure finding her would help," MacLean said.

An estimated 800,000 children are reported missing each year, a 2002 study by the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention found. Of that number, 58,200 are abducted by non-family members. There are 115 cases of long-term abductions, known as stereotypical kidnappings, with 56 percent of victims found alive and 40 percent found dead.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited children reports that finding missing children quickly is key in saving lives.

Seventy-four percent of abducted children who are murdered are dead within three hours of abduction, the center reports.

"It doesn't take very long to find a victim who has been taken away. The longer you wait, the harder it is to find the victim," Damiano said.

He said when Jennifer disappeared, police did not search as aggressively for missing teens considered runaways as they do today. That thinking has changed today, but it does not make the search for Jennifer easier.

"There has to be somebody who knows where she is and what happened," Damiano said.

Police target pond in Avon in teen's '89 disappearance
Close to solving case, they say
Email|Print|Single Page| Text size – + By Eric Moskowitz
Globe Staff / May 25, 2008
AVON - Acting on new information, a team of private investigators and other volunteers scoured the area around a secluded Avon pond yesterday, searching for some sign of Jennifer Fay, a teen from neighboring Brockton who disappeared in 1989.

Volunteers picked through the area in Avon. Police are "80 percent sure" they have identified the person and motive in the case.
more stories like thisThe small clue that led them to the Avon pond - someone's recollection that Fay used to gather there with friends, out of sight of local police and unbeknownst to parents - was collected during an investigation that has stretched over three years and several thousand hours of donated labor. The investigators hope their work will close the case and bring some peace to Fay's family after nearly two decades of uncertainty.

"Our searches have taken us as far as Texas," tracking a Fay lookalike, said Phil White, the Brockton private investigator who took on the case in 2005 after being contacted by the Molly Bish Foundation, a child-safety organization named for a Warren lifeguard who vanished in 2000 and whose remains were discovered in 2003. Bish and Fay were the same age when they disappeared: 16.

In three years, White and four other investigators have conducted interviews with about 125 people who knew Fay or overlapped with her social circle, and they plan to interview at least 100 more. In Vermont, they tracked down the last partygoer who was with Fay the night she disappeared, Nov. 14, 1989.

That man, 21 at the time, had been reluctant to speak with police because of his criminal record. But he told private investigators that he had left a party on Broad Place in Brockton with Fay to make a trip to a North Main Street market for more alcohol. For years, investigators had considered the market to be the epicenter of the search, White said.

But the Vermont man told investigators that he continued with Fay to her home on Emerson Avenue, so she could pick up a jacket, before the two headed back to the party a few blocks away. They stopped on Broad Street, near Broad Place, where the man stooped to throw up. When he looked up later, he saw Fay up the road talking to someone in a dark vehicle, he told investigators.

"This is new information that just came forward," White said. So was the Avon location where Fay and some others used to smoke marijuana and sunbathe. Yesterday, investigators searched that area - tucked behind a set of water towers, in the woods east of Route 24 - with about 20 other volunteers, including members of the Brockton Emergency Management Agency and a team of dogs trained to find remains in woods and water.

Al Beland said the searchers did not know if they had uncovered something at the pond, but they believe Fay can be found. "Pretty soon there will be enough pieces of the puzzle," said Beland, of Connecticut Canine Search and Rescue, the nonprofit group that brought the dogs and that has worked closely with White's team.

White said the investigators are "80 percent sure" they have identified the person and motive behind Fay's disappearance, and they are working with law enforcement to resolve the case and find the girl or her remains, he said.

At a clearing in the woods near the pond, members of Fay's family waited at a table across from a Salvation Army trailer as volunteers searched, one square foot at a time. Fay's sister, Yvette Churchill, said she has struggled with anxiety and stress in the past 18 1/2 years and has trouble keeping a job or relating to coworkers. "They don't really understand what I'm going through," she said. "I can't really blame them, but I do."

Churchill recalled Fay as an outgoing teen who loved rock music, a rail-thin blonde who liked to joke around.

"She liked to be at the center of attention," said her mother, Dottie MacLean, working the rings on her fingers nervously. "Jennifer's problem was that she was trusted everyone, [thought] everyone was her friend. And they weren't, they definitely weren't."

MacLean said the dedication of the volunteers and of current Brockton officials helps her cope. "In the beginning Brockton just pretty much treated it like she was a runaway," she said. "It wasn't like today, when if a child goes missing her picture is on the news immediately."

MacLean remains hopeful someone will call a tip line, 508-584-4747, that reaches the private investigators. "Somebody definitely knows something," she said. "Please come forward and end this nightmare for me and my family."http://www.boston.com/news/local/art...disappearance/

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AVON —
The search will move on to a nearby pond in September, said private investigator Phillip White.

The investigation recently turned up information that the teen had frequently visited the area of the park, White said.

White is part of the team of private investigators, working pro bono through the Molly Bish Foundation, who have interviewed dozens of people and conducted several searches for evidence in the area, with the assistance of state and Brockton police.

Fay was 16 years old when she went missing Nov. 14, 1989.

The girl, who is now feared dead, was last seen on Broad Street in Brockton after leaving her home with friends.

Saturday’s search involved teams of dogs specially trained to find human remains and Brockton police officials, along with representatives from the Brockton Emergency Management Agency and the Plymouth County district attorney’s office. Students from the Boston University Private Investigator program also took part.

White called it a “very slow, tedious process,” which involved searching every inch of ground in the area for small objects, such as bone fragments or skeletal remains.

Divers and dog teams will search the 8-foot-deep pond this fall, White said.

Dottie MacLean has been looking for her daughter, Jennifer Fay, for almost 18 years. Think about that. Your child missing for 18 years. Can you imagine a single night not knowing if your child is safe? This is the nightmare Dottie MacLean has been living since November 14, 1989.

Jennifer Fay was 16 years old when she disappeared from the streets of Brockton. Police initially treated her case as a runaway teen, not a possible abduction and homicide victim. That meant, other than Dottie and her family, no one was looking for Jennifer Fay for years.

Things are changing. And for the first time Dottie MacLean has hope that she may soon know the truth of what happened to her daughter.

Three years ago, a team of private investigators, through the Molly Bish Center, took on Jennifer Fay's case. They are doing incredible work. If you've followed my stories on this over the years, you know that they have organized searches in the Brockton area, they took Dottie to Texas where they thought they found Jennifer Fay alive and living a new life (sadly it was not Jennifer). They have spent 5,000 hours interviewing witnesses, reviewing facts of the case, studying scenarios.

Team Jennifer leader Phillip White tells me his group has identified a suspect and a motive in Jennifer's disappearance, they only need to find Jennifer. More searches are planned.

The team has also come up with a new timeline. For more than a year, Team Jennifer investigators have worked on a reluctant witness (who just happens to be the last person to see Jennifer Fay alive) and convinced him to talk. According to this witness, Jennifer was last seen, not at a corner convenience store on North Main Street, as had been thought for 17 years, but on Broad Street, talking to the driver of a dark colored vehicle. This is significant because it is the first time Jennifer is connected to a vehicle on the night she disappeared. This witness was found in Vermont, near the Canadian border. It appears there is no limit to Team Jennifer's determination to get to the truth.

Team Jennifer members tell me they are sharing their information with State Police. They hope their work will result in finding Jennifer, and in securing an indictment against a suspect.

While all this takes place, Dottie MacLean patiently waits. What she wants is an end to her 18 year ordeal. Dottie is desperate to find her daughter. And she is desperately hoping that Team Jennifer will help answer her prayers.

If you have any information about the disappearance of Jennifer Fay, please call the Jennifer Fay Hotline at 1.866.882.2626. To learn more about this case, please go to www.whereisjennifer.org

The Rockland woman watched the television news reports of two missing Missouri boys found alive by authorities in an apartment there and wondered, for a fleeting moment, if one day her daughter would be found safe.

“I hope for that every day,” MacLean said.

In the years since her 16-year-old daughter disappeared, MacLean has allowed herself closely guarded moments of that type of hope.

Then reality sets in.

“It has been 17 years,” she said. “You never know, but I don't know.”

Her daughter, Jennifer Fay, who disappeared in Brockton in 1989, is one of 27 Massachusetts children listed as missing on the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children Web site.

Some ran away from home. Some were snatched by non-custodial parents. Seven, including Jennifer, are listed as abducted.

The quicker a child is found, the more likely the child will be found safe, experts say.

One national study found that in 40 percent of kidnapping cases, the child was killed, and in another 4 percent of the cases, the child was never found.

But the case of the two Missouri boys — one who disappeared 4 1/2 years ago, the other days earlier — who were found by authorities living in an apartment in that state shows anything can happen, said Phil White, a Brockton private investigator working on the Fay case.

“There is always a chance someone will be found,” he said.

That's what MacLean thought last year when she flew to Texas with private investigators who received a tip that Fay was married and living on a military base.

The woman looked like Fay. She was born the same year. She moved around the country.

Then MacLean met the woman. It wasn't Jennifer.

White said he and the other investigators working on the case aren't giving up. They want a happy ending for the family.

“Perhaps we can find Jennifer Fay alive and living well in the United States somewhere,” he said.

MacLean said the case in Missouri shows it can happen.

In that case, a 13-year-old boy who disappeared days earlier was found in a suburban St. Louis apartment with a 15-year-old boy who vanished four years ago. The man who lived in the apartment was arrested and charged with kidnapping.

“Jennifer could be in a position like that. You never know until you find her,” she said.

Jennifer's name and photograph are on several Web sites, including www.misskids.org, www.doenetwork.us and a Web site dedicated to finding her, www.whereisjennifer.org. Her name was entered into the nationwide computer of missing persons just days after she was reported missing in 1989.